Friday, October 21, 2011

Friends of the Salt Lake City Public Library to Administration: "Our faith and trust are shattered"

Excerpt: Chaotic conditions and cratering morale at the Salt Lake City Library may next take their toll on patron services and public programs.

The influential Friends of the Library — an all-volunteer nonprofit that has raised $1 million for the library during the past decade — is threatening to pull its funding over continuing library controversies.

This “unprecedented” step may be necessary, the community group warned the Library Board on Thursday, because “for the first time in our [51-year] history, we are in crisis.”

“Today, the library is not the same as the one we agreed to support,” reads a letter from the Friends board and distributed to embattled Library Director Beth Elder along with the board.

“We are uneasy and leery of turning over our money earned from volunteer time to whoever happens to be in the finance department that day,” the letter says. “The Friends are spending as much time training and explaining our procedures to new staff as we are at raising the money. Our faith and trust are shattered.”